Coast Guard spending $50 million to remove oil from U.S. ship that sank in 1946 off B.C.

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A $50-million Canadian Coast Guard clean-up operation is underway to extract hundreds of tonnes of fuel from a bomb-laden U.S. Army transport ship that sank in 1946 in Grenville Channel on B.C.’s remote north coast.

While removal of the seeping oil from the Brigadier-General M.G. Zalinski is considered a positive step, critics question the cost of the operation — which involves more than 150 people, three floating fishing lodges, and a Prince Rupert command centre — and believe the U.S. should foot the bill.

“We decided not to do this on the cheap,” responded Roger Girouard, incident commander for the Zalinski operation and assistant commissioner for the coast guard’s western region. “This is a big one, no question about it. The idea is to do it as cleanly and safely as we can.”

Representatives of at least five federal departments are involved in the operation, along with two provincial ministries, two first nations, and several contractors, including Mammoet, the Dutch-owned company that is removing the oil with subcontractor Global Diving and Salvage of Seattle.

The Zalinski is also providing lessons on how multiple agencies must work together on a complex clean-up operation.

“This is not a dress rehearsal,” said Girouard, noting an oil-tanker spill would pose much greater problems. “But are there things we are learning in terms of cooperation and tactics that are good for the coast? Sure, absolutely. We’d be crazy not to glean those lessons.”

He added that oil-tanker traffic is part of a larger change sweeping the north coat. “With natural gas, more coal, more grain, another container terminal ... the amount of tonnage on the coast will grow. It doesn’t take a crude carrier to cause a challenge up here on the coast.”

Lance Sundquist, provincial incident commander and director of special projects with the B.C. ministry of environment, said that “every exercise we go through improves our ability to better respond ... and prepares us for any further operations that may take place.

“We know that things happen, and we have to be prepared to respond the best that we can.”

Ian McAllister of the environmental group Pacific Wild, who dove the wreck last year, said the best that can come from the $50-million cleanup is to achieve what should have happened long ago, preferably with the Americans paying the tab since it “was their ship that sank, after all.”

Built in 1919, the Zalinski ran aground in September 1946 about 100 kilometres south of Prince Rupert in the Inside Passage. The ship was transporting a cargo of bombs, large amounts of ammunition, and spare truck parts from Seattle to Alaska. All 48 men aboard survived.

The wreck lies 2.5 kilometres south of James Point in Lowe Inlet.

Asked if the U.S. would be billed, Girouard said: “That’s something that gets discussed slightly above my pay grade between foreign affairs and the U.S.” No one at foreign affairs could be reached to comment Monday.

About 120 people are living in floating lodges near the Zalinski wreck site, plus 40 at a command centre in Prince Rupert. Ten oil-spill response vessels are on site, including a staging barge capable of holding 4,000 tonnes of oil, along with equipment such as containment booms.

“We were tasked with removing the oil safely and making sure if there is a discharge we weren’t going to impact the local environment,” said Girouard.

“We’ve put a lot of emphasis on controlling any worst-case scenarios we come across, and we’re poised to do just that.”

Girouard said the Zalinski had a fuel capacity of 700 tonnes, but because ships don’t usually fill to capacity, it probably left Seattle with 650 tonnes. Given fuel used in transit and lost at sea at the time of the accident, it is likely that less than half of the original amount is still on board.

To access the oil, crews will employ a “hot tapping” process in which pressurized hot water is injected into the tanks to loosen up the “very thick” bunker fuel, while a hose sucks out the softened oil into a holding tank, Girouard explained.

Camera-operated remotely operated vehicles about the size of toaster ovens have been roaming the ship’s passageways to gauge the state of deterioration and to generally see what is on board. One ROV was attacked by an octopus, but that wasn’t the only wildlife experience during the operation. A young humpback whale also rubbed up against an equipment barge near the wreck site.

While the outer hull of the ship remains in good shape, inner areas are badly deteriorated. There are about 14 fuel tanks of varying sizes on board.

“You come across the remnants of a Jeep and all you recognize is the steering wheel,” Girouard said of the ROV images. “Then, in another cargo hold, there are boxes of cargo in really good shape. The wood hasn’t deteriorated.”

The ship still holds crates of .303 rifles and 50-calibre ammunition and several dozen bombs, ranging in size from 250 to 1,000 pounds, all without fuses. The plan is to let them rust safety away.

“None of it is imminently explosive. The concern is you don’t want to start moving it.”

While a museum in Alaska suggested the ship carried a wooden box of North Slope aboriginal artifacts (placed in safekeeping in Washington D.C. in case of Japanese attack), none have been found to date.

“That would be fascinating if we stumbled upon it,” said Girouard.

He explained that the operation has been in the works since 2008.

“There is no good time of year to be here,” he said, noting that issues such as salmon and tourism would have surfaced at other times of the year.

The Coast Guard in 2003 and 2004 contracted divers to patch oil leaks on the Zalinski. Ottawa issued a warning in January 2004, ordering mariners to avoid anchoring or fishing within 200 metres of the wreck, which settled upside down about 30 metres below the ocean surface.

Following further complaints from nearby first nations, Ottawa authorized more patch work in 2012, and again earlier this year.

The federal government spent $42 million in 1996 to salvage the Irving Whale, an oil barge that sank in 1970 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and later recovered $5 million from the Irving group of companies.

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Coast Guard spending $50 million to remove oil from U.S. ship that sank in 1946 off B.C.

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